Notre Dame women's basketball: Irish dream denied

April 07, 2013|By CURT RALLO | South Bend Tribune

NEW ORLEANS — This time, there would be no magical comebacks. No buzzer-beater 3-pointers to send the game to overtime. No steals or coast-to-coast drives or last-second baskets. Notre Dame’s stunning mastery of Connecticut came to a tearful end on Sunday night, as the Fighting Irish suffered an 83-65 loss to their arch-rivals in the NCAA women’s basketball National Semifinal game at the New Orleans Arena. The Irish won seven of the previous eight meetings against Connecticut, including games in the National Semifinals the past two seasons. After beating Connecticut three times this season in heart-thumping fashion, the Fighting Irish struggled on offense in this one and had no answer for the Huskies’ Breanna Stewart. The 6-foot-4 freshman overpowered the Irish with 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-5 3-pointers, and 5 of 5 free throws. Notre Dame’s season ends with a 35-2 record. No. 1 seed Connecticut (34-4) advances to Tuesday’s National Championship game against Louisville. No. 5 seed Louisville (29-8) advanced by defeating No. 2 seed Cal (32-4), 64-57, in Sunday’s first National Semifinal game. The battle between Big East members Connecticut and Louisville guarantees a record ninth national championship for the league, breaking a tie with the Southeastern Conference. Sunday’s loss ended the remarkable career of Notre Dame All-American Skylar Diggins. The South Bend southpaw scored 10 points and dished out eight assists and four steals. She was 3-of-15 shooting and had six turnovers, but those numbers will fade in the glow of a legendary career. Diggins carved out a lasting legacy, leaving as ND’s all-time leading scorer (2,357 points), the only Irish women’s basketball player to score at least 2,000 points and have at least 500 assists and 500 rebounds, and the all-time leader in steals (381). Notre Dame was 130-20 with Diggins wearing Irish colors, and reached three Final Fours, won the Big East title for the first time, and won back-to-back outright Big East regular-season titles. Notre Dame was also 10-2 in its last 12 games against Connecticut and Tennessee. Before Diggins arrived, Notre Dame was 4-28 vs. Connecticut and 0-20 vs. Tennessee. “It’s been a dream come true, just having the opportunity to play for my hometown school and right in my backyard for coach (Muffet) McGraw, and just being able to learn from her every day,” Diggins said. “The experiences I’ve gone through, I’ll never forget. The people that I’ve met, I’ll never forget. It was just such a great time, and I had a great time going through it. I wouldn’t want a different group of girls in the locker room, I wouldn’t want a different group of coaches. “Just the people I’ve met … I know they will be a part of my circle of life. That’s just a blessing in itself.” Kayla McBride led Notre Dame with 16 points. Jewell Loyd scored 11 and Natalie Achonwa 10. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored 16 for Connecticut, and Bria Hartley 15. “I’m just so proud of this team and what we accomplished this year and hate for it to end on a game like this, when we just played so poorly,” McGraw said. “I thought Breanna Stewart was fantastic. She was unbelievable. I think her and (Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis), they killed us. We contained everybody else, but we did not have an answer for them. It was a disappointing way for this really wonderful season to end, but we will try to think back on what we did to get here and be proud of that.” Connecticut grabbed a 13-point lead, 56-43, with 10:55 left in the game. The Huskies capitalized on a critical stretch when Diggins misfired on a shot that would have cut Connecticut’s lead to five points. Connecticut hit back-to-back 3s, and the Irish called time to try to regroup. McBride answered with a 3 from the right wing to slice the lead to 10 points, 56-46. Connecticut again took a 13-point lead. Diggins hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 59-48, and then Ariel Braker’s stunning block of Stewart with 8:22 left in the game helped the Irish cut the deficit to 59-50 on a 12-foot jumper by Loyd. Loyd answered a basket by Stewart with a 3-pointer to trim the Connecticut lead to 61-53, and then Diggins took a charge by Morgan Tuck. Diggins drove baseline on the next possession and dished to Braker for a lay-up, and the Irish were within six points, 61-55, with 6:26 left in the game. Connecticut then hit the Irish with a 7-0 run to pull out to a 68-55 lead with 4:08 left in the game. The Huskies then pulled away to put them on the brink of winning an eighth national title, which would tie Tennessee’s record. Connecticut gained the upperhand at the end of the first half for a 10-point lead, 39-29, at the break. The Huskies outscored Notre Dame 14-3 in the final 2:55 of the first half. “We just didn’t play good defense,” Diggins said of the 14-3 Connecticut run. “They got out in transition and they scored in the half-court offense, too. We didn’t lock down on defense like we normally do. We just weren’t playing like ourselves. You have to credit them. They’re such a good team, we know each other so well, and they outworked us.” Both teams struggled mightily in an extremely physical start. Notre Dame hit only two of its first 24 shots and Connecticut hit 4-of-14. The Huskies were harassed into seven turnovers, compared to four by the Irish in that stretch. Connecticut ended up shooting 50 percent in the first half (18-of-36), hitting 13 of their last 17 after a 1-of-12 stretch. Notre Dame hit only 9-of-38 shots in the first half (24 percent). Three double-digit scorers for Notre Dame, Skylar Diggins (0-for-6), Kayla McBride (1-of-8) and Jewell Loyd (2-of-10) were a combined 3-of-24. “(Connecticut) did a great job of getting up and pressuring us, and I thought that we got some shots we wanted at the beginning of the game, some layups and some jumpers that we usually knock down.” UCONN (34-4): Doty 0-0 0-0 0, Mosqueda-Lewis 7-12 1-1 16, Stewart 10-16 5-5 29, Dolson 3-4 3-4 9, Faris 3-7 4-4 10, Tuck 2-7 0-0 4, Jefferson 0-3 0-0 0, Hartley 4-13 6-7 15, Buck 0-0 0-0 0, Stokes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-62 19-21 83. NOTRE DAME (35-2): Diggins 3-15 4-4 10, Achonwa 2-6 6-6 10, McBride 5-20 3-4 16, Loyd 5-17 0-0 11, Braker 3-8 2-2 8, Holloway 0-0 0-0 0, Turner 0-2 0-0 0, Cable 2-4 0-0 4, Mabrey 0-0 0-0 0, Huffman 0-0 0-0 0, Wright 2-2 2-4 6. Totals 22-74 17-20 65. Halftime — UConn 39-29. 3-Point Goals — UConn 6-14 (Stewart 4-5, Mosqueda-Lewis 1-3, Hartley 1-5, Tuck 0-1), Notre Dame 4-13 (McBride 3-4, Loyd 1-3, Cable 0-1, Turner 0-2, Diggins 0-3). Fouled Out — Braker. Rebounds — UConn 41 (Tuck 7), Notre Dame 43 (Braker 9). Assists — UConn 16 (Faris 6), Notre Dame 16 (Diggins 8). Total Fouls — UConn 18, Notre Dame 19. A — 17,545. Staff writer Curt Rallo: crallo@sbtinfo.com574-235-6152